In the tightly contested battle Sunday’s Eastern Conference semifinal is shaping up to be, every advantage, big or small, is key.

One look at a jammed practice field was all the evidence one would need to see an advantage the Ticats should enjoy.

Health, at least overall team health, is something the Ticats have not had a lot of this season. From Andy Fantuz and Lindsey Lamar early in the season to Greg Ellingson and a banged-up offensive line late in the year, there have been plenty of hurdles to overcome in the injury department.

And while head coach Kent Austin is reserving judgment until Friday or possibly Saturday — “Talk to me in a couple of days. I’ve been surprised before,” he said when asked if this was as healthy as his team has been all year — we’ll assume that is just a coach not wanting to test the football gods lest they respond with a rash of late week mishaps that cripples half his team.

Quarterback Henry Burris, on the other hand, perhaps a less superstitious sort, sees a plethora of like-uniformed players on the field and sees a team that is getting healthy at precisely the right time.

“To have both Joel Figueroa and Brian Simmons out there and have Greg (Wojt) back at his comfortable position at guard, it feels good moving forward,” said Burris. “To see both Luke (Tasker) and Greg Ellingson and all the guys out there practising and taking reps with the offence, this is the right time you want to be peaking both in performance and health. To have our guys full steam moving forward is going to be key in these playoffs.”

A healthy offensive line may be paramount among all other areas when you take into account the opponent. Montreal does one thing extremely well and that is get to the quarterback or hurry him enough that being effective is a tough chore. Simmons and Figueroa, both starting offensive tackles have missed a combined 16 games between them with injuries this year. Simmons got back on the field last week against Winnipeg. Figueroa returned the week before against Montreal. In their absence, Wojt, who normally plays inside moved outside. Burris, knowing Montreal is coming for him every chance they get, is sleeping better this week knowing his starting offensive line is healthy for the game.

“To have those guys who play with the kind of passion that our guys do up front, you couldn’t be lead by a better group,” Burris said. “To me, that’s the best group in the league and they are the reason we go. We are excited to have them out there because to go against guys like (John) Bowman and that Montreal defensive line, we are going to need our best guys to battle them.”

Montreal’s defence is the primary, perhaps the only reason, they even made it into the playoffs this year. While injuries have hampered the Ticats, the turmoil they created in Hamilton is small in comparison to what has happened in Montreal this year, starting with the loss of No. 1 quarterback Anthony Calvillo.

But through it all, the defence has remained a rock for this team, something they have been able to lean on when one young quarterback after another has suffered through growing pains.

Burris, when it’s not him on the run himself, is a big fan of the Montreal unit.

“They have the right personnel for the scheme they run,” he said. “ A big bunch of physical guys who have Energizer batteries inside of them and they just keep going and going.”

But a healthy starting offensive line isn’t the only aid to Burris’ sleep this week. The receiving corps is also set to get a boost assuming nothing untoward happens between now and Sunday’s game. Ellingson, who at one time was considered a co-favourite for rookie-of-the-year honours (along with teammate C.J. Gable), missed the final six games of the season, but has been practising the past two weeks and is likely to be back on the field this Sunday.

Tasker, who arrived just as Ellingson was going down, missed the final three weeks of the season, but he too looked good to go in practice.

Whichever way you look at it, Austin has options going into this week he hasn’t had for much of the season and that bodes well for the Ticats who also take a two-game winning streak into the playoffs.

“We are playing against a great defence in Montreal, but we are looking forward to this challenge,” Burris said. “We know the troubles they can bring about with offence and with their execution, but hopefully we have played them enough and studied enough film and we have prepared our butts off. But it’s all about having a great week of practice.”

On that front, on numbers alone, the Ticats are off to a pretty solid start.

TIGER-CATS CUT LAUTHER

Say this about Brett Lauther’s rookie season in the CFL. It was an eventful one.

From backup (developmental) kicker out of training came to taking over the duties from a struggling Luca Congi midway through the season and then losing them because of his own struggles, there were more ups than downs.

Lauther got his opportunity to start just as the Ticats headed east for a game in Moncton, N.B., in September. In that game he went 4-for-4 in the field goal department and earned CFL special teams player of the week honours. But in his next three games Lauther was good on just 2-of-6 field goal tries and the Ticats put the job back in the hands of the veteran Congi.

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Tiger-Cats getting healthy just in time

In the tightly contested battle Sunday’s Eastern Conference semifinal is shaping up to be, every advantage, big or small, is key.

One look at a jammed practice field was all the evidence one would need to see an advantage the Ticats should enjoy.

Health, at least overall team health, is something the Ticats have not had a lot of this season. From Andy Fantuz and Lindsey Lamar early in the season to Greg Ellingson and a banged-up offensive line late in the year, there have been plenty of hurdles to overcome in the injury department.

And while head coach Kent Austin is reserving judgment until Friday or possibly Saturday — “Talk to me in a couple of days. I’ve been surprised before,” he said when asked if this was as healthy as his team has been all year — we’ll assume that is just a coach not wanting to test the football gods lest they respond with a rash of late week mishaps that cripples half his team.